Two Communities: One Destiny (?)

Americans in general find themselves living in distinctive political communities, and so do America’s Jews. These political divides today are seen as deep, reflective of two fundamentally different views about how America should be in the world.

These generic divisions find for example “Rust Belt Americans” in disagreement with the views of “Liberal Universalists.” By every standard, class-economics-religion-geography and culture, these groupings of Americans hold profoundly different perspectives about what it means to “be an American.” The former hold an “American First” orientation with its emphasis on nationalistic policies and a rural-small city focus concerning this country’s direction and destiny. Lacking in trust of government and other civic institutions, these voters in the fall of 2016 embraced the counter-establishment message of Donald Trump.

By contrast, the urban-orientated, big-city voters, comprising this second voter cohort, embraced the social-liberal and globalist policies of Hilary Clinton. Drawing on David Goodhart’s analysis of the American political scene, The Road to Somewhere, we find two totally divergent worldviews emerging among this nation’s electorate. Those folks who relish the return to “the good old days” where people felt rooted in their communities, jobs and lives (i.e. somewhere) are seen embattled against the globalists who focus on the future with its emphasis on “anywhere” affording them the opportunity to reimagine the world.

Today, we can observe similar patterns among Jewish Americans. In 2018 we find Jewish behavior being expressed in specific and distinctive political pods. For this purpose we are employing the following terms to express this Jewish divide: Tribal Jews vs. Global Jews.

Just as Americans in general appear to have limited points of connection and agreement with their fellow citizens who hold contrary political views, the Jewish political divisions reflect a similar disconnect between these two competing camps. In previous articles I have shared various observations of the social and political separations that describe the American Jewish scene.[1] The chart below seeks to offer some generalized perspectives about the “characteristics” associated with each camp as well as their respective beliefs.

Categories and Perspectives

“Tribal Jews”

“Global Jews”

Political Orientation

“Identity” Politics: Focus on the Jewish political universe (“Is it good for the Jews?”). Trump is seen as good for Jews and America.

Universal/HumanitarianPerspective: Endorse policies that advance the general welfare of the society. Trump is viewed as problematic, even dangerous by some.

Party Affiliation(s)

Republicans-Disaffected Democrats

Democrats & Independents

Policies

Welcome Trump’s positions on Israel, Iran, the Palestinians and the UN

Oppose many of the President’s policies on immigration, UN and international cooperation, and the environment, etc.

Messages of this Administration

The President speaks for these constituencies who have felt that Washington has not reflected their interests.

This President does not represent their priorities or values.

On Anti-Semitism

Worry about left-wing anti-Israel actions and political perspectives; less concerned about Alt-Right, in light of (Steve) Bannon and other’s support for Israel.

Have concerns about extremist positions on the far left and right within American politics. Worry about the Alt-Right and other extremist groups’ ties to Trump.

Neighborhood/Community

Religious communities; new American populations (Iranian-Russian-Israeli).

Coastal city Jews and other major urban Jewish population centers.

Perceptions of the Other

Liberal Jews seen by this sector as undermining core Jewish interests and values: J Street-NIF-Reform Movement among others seen as problematic.

Trump Jews are accused of only focusing on narrow Jewish interests, demonstrating minimal support for broader social and humanitarian concerns.

Reader Interactions

Comments

The diagram that accompanies this article mentions President Donald Trump five (5) times.

This is a mistake, because Jews existed for more than 33 centuries before Donald Trump became President, and they will continue to exist for more than 1,000 years after Donald Trump’s time as President ends. I would like to see an improved version of that diagram that does not mention any specific politicians or political parties.

If I would make my own version of that diagram, then the categories would include: belief in the divinely-inspired nature of the Torah [or not], allegiance to Halachah [or not], acceptance of intermarriage with non-Jews [or not] , rejection of Jewishness by patrilineal descent [or not] and eats 100% kosher [or not]. Notice that my list makes no mention of any specific politicians or political parties.

Of course I’ll own the following definitional biases and generalizations. Your use of the overarching categories”Tribal Jews and Global Jews” is overloaded with highly judgemental overtones and connotations: Tribal=primative, undeveloped and unsophisticated. Global=postmodern, highly developed and sophisticated.

Far better would be the vanilla categories of Republican Jews and Democrat Jews. Yes those categories have their difficulties as well but only for those who choose to prejudge and overgeneralize, rather than to evaluate others’ ideas in the spirit of understanding rather than merely responding.

As I said up front, I’ll own the biases and generalizations of the last paragraph as well.

To MR Cohen,
Your reply proves the point that Steven make, survival at all cost doesn’t represent to me Jewish values. Your reply fit the chart of a Trible Jew and where the world and Israel problem is.

I’ll add two more adjectives to my list of the problems of your two categories, tribal and global Jews: condescending and dismissive. “On one foot” it is for these two reasons that candidate Trump was elected President Trump.

As a long-time Star Trek fan, I have always
wanted to be identified with tribbles 🙂

By calling me a Trible Jew, are you trying to suggest
that Orthodox Jews multiply like tribbles?

By the way, Jordan Goodman makes a valid point:
One of the reasons why the Democrats lost the last
USA Presidential election was because they were
condescending and dismissive (and also because
they abandoned poor whites).

Communities? Perhaps more accurate would be the more general term groups.
Unfortunately the only shared destiny for the two groups you describe would have been annihilation by Hitler as he recognized none of the distinctions you outline as being important.

Taking a stand for anything short of “it’s all good,” has become politically incorrect on the left. We all know the truth is, if you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything. Sadly, I learned this truth the hard way in my personal life. Many, many other people, especially young ones, are going to learn it, too, in their own time and their own way.

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